Teachers working together to improve student achievement in reading and writing

December 10, 2007

Success Story: Teaching the Six Qualities of Good Reading

Using the Six Qualities to Help Kids Pick Books, Assess Their Reading Ability, and Set Goals for Improvement

Recently, I spent a week working with several classes of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. Most of these kids were two or more years below grade level in reading and had been trying to read books that were way too hard for them. As a result, they weren’t enjoying reading, they weren’t able to read quietly for long periods of time, and they weren’t finishing books. They were also developing bad habits like ignoring any word they didn’t know or just turning pages without reading to make it look like they were making progress. Many kids still read word-by-word tracking with their fingers and a few had to read out loud because they’d never learned to read silently.

By the last day, almost every kid had a book they liked and could read
reasonably well. And classes had no trouble reading quietly as long as
I needed them to. Finger-tracking readers were reading a bit more
fluently and out-loud readers were getting the hang of reading
silently. But the biggest progress we saw as in sharing. At the start
of the week, no one wanted to read in front of the class. By the end, I
was overwhelmed with requests. Even better than that, after just a few
days, kids could listen to someone reading and use the criteria we had
created to discuss how well they were doing and what they might need to
do to improve. Kids were also able to understand and apply the feedback
I was giving them in conferences.

By the end of the week, there was genuine excitement around reading in each room. Kids wanted
to read wanted to participate in sharing, and didn’t mind getting comments
from me or their peers about what they needed to do to get better.
As I left one 5th grade room after my last class session, the teacher said, “This is really how reading should be.”